Sheriff Heath dismissed the bailiff and read over the order. “It’s a transfer, not a final sentencing. She’s to be held at the State Home for Girls until trial.”
He looked up and seemed surprised to find Carrie still standing there. She was awfully good at slipping through doors and insinuating herself into circumstances to which she had not been invited. “Miss Hart, I’ll ask you to keep this to yourself as it was not made public.”
“It’s turning into quite a story,” she said, “but I’ll hold it for now. Has she no recourse?”
“Not really. It’s a temporary transfer of custody. It’s not too different from transferring a feeble-minded inmate to the Morris Plains asylum until trial, or sending an epileptic down to Skillman. The idea is to put an inmate where they might be best served. Only I’m usually the one to request it. I suspect Detective Courter wants to keep Miss Davis away from any interference.”
“Then this is because of me?” Constance said, alarmed.
“We knew Courter wouldn’t like a lady deputy involved in his cases. I can try to speak to him, but?—”
“Can’t you put a stop to it? Once she’s there, they’ll never let her go.”
“Oh, she’ll have a hearing eventually,” Sheriff Heath said. “I imagine he wants to prosecute Tony first.”
“I don’t know why Tony doesn’t go to a reformatory,” Constance said. “He admits to a different girl every week.”
Carrie laughed. “They don’t have reformatories for grown men who go around with girls.”
“Well, this girl’s being deprived of her liberty when she hasn’t broken any law.”
Sheriff Heath said, “If she’s done nothing wrong, Deputy, I know you’ll be the one to prove it.”
She could feel the sweat under her collar. “When does she have to go?”
“Today.”
“Then let me take her. We’ll go on the train.”
He shrugged. “You’re the matron. It’s your job.”
“I’ll be back tonight.” After she returned, she would sleep at the jail again. She felt she deserved another night in a jail cell, having failed to do a thing for Minnie.
CONSTANCE WAS UNDER ORDERS to keep her inmate handcuffed on the train, but she hated to see the girl embarrassed in public. She loaned her muff to Minnie and unchained her long enough to allow her to slip her hands inside before locking her wrists together again. At least no one on the train would see.
It was a ride of some three hours from Hackensack. Minnie didn’t care to read a book or look at a magazine, but Constance put a newspaper across her lap regardless. She ignored it and stared out the window.
Once the train was going and the noise of the tracks muffled their conversation, Constance said, “I’m sorry. I hadn’t any idea this was coming.”
She sniffed at that and didn’t answer.
“Just because you’re going to Trenton doesn’t mean I’m going to forget about you. I will keep working on your case and I’ll try to get you released. I still have some hope that your parents will come around.”
“They won’t,” she said in a hard voice.
At least Minnie was speaking to her. “Well,” Constance said, “sometimes parents change their minds after they’ve had a little time.”
Minnie kept her face turned toward the window. They rode out of town and past open fields. The grass was all brown and stippled with snow. “I ought to have listened to you, Miss Kopp,” she said. “You tried to tell me what to say and I wouldn’t listen. I didn’t really think they’d send me to a state home.”
“I never meant to tell you what to say. You want to tell the truth, and that’s the right thing to do. This isn’t a punishment for refusing to testify against Tony.” Although as she said it, she wondered if it was. Was Detective Courter trying to scare Minnie into playing the victim?
Minnie sighed and slumped back in her seat. “What’s it like at the reformatory?”
“I’ve never seen it. You’re the first one I’ve—the first one who’s had to go there.”
“I’m the first one you’ve lost. That’s what you were about to say.”
“I haven’t lost you.” But of course, she felt like she had.
She let Minnie eat a sandwich on the train, believing there to be little risk of her escaping on a passenger car moving fifty miles per hour. It took some fumbling behind a curtain of newspaper to unlock her handcuffs without the other passengers noticing. After she finished, Constance kept the chains in her handbag and let Minnie enjoy something that resembled freedom, at least superficially.
They rode directly through Trenton and out the other side, into what was once field and forest but was now giving way to homes and small factories. There was no missing the State Home for Girls: a sign on the iron gate proclaimed its purpose, and behind that was such a hodgepodge of buildings that it couldn’t have been anything other than a state-run institution.
The train stopped half a mile past the reformatory and they walked back. Minnie complained of the cold in spite of the fact that she was wrapped in Constance’s good coat, which dragged the ground and picked up mud and leaves. The jail had no sturdy outdoor clothing for the inmates as they had so little use for it.
At the entrance, a tall, thin woman in a white apron ran out to meet them. She had hair the color of butterscotch and an oblong face with a wide mouth and two square teeth that jutted out in front.
“I’m Miss Pittman,” she said. “The sheriff telephoned about you.”
Constance introduced Minnie, who could only nod and stare at her. There was not another person in sight, only a collection of forbidding buildings surrounded by an open expanse of lawn. She noticed that there was nothing in the way of trees or shrubs, the idea being, presumably, that they might be used to conceal contraband or runaways.
It became clear to Constance that she was expected to say her good-byes and board the next train. But it didn’t seem right to leave Minnie so abruptly.
“Would you mind showing me the place, as long as I’m here?” Constance asked. “I should have some idea about what my inmates can expect.”
“Of course.” Miss Pittman led them toward a rather large white home perched awkwardly between two low brick buildings. “The two on either side are the dormitories. They’ve been here the longest.” She spoke in the manner of a tour guide. “In between them, this strange creature was placed, entirely without any consultation from us.”